Godunov (TV series)

Godunov (Russian: Годуно́в) is a Russian historical drama television series created by Ilya Tikin and Nikolay Borisov, directed by Alexei Andrianov and Timur Alpatov. The first season premiered from November 5 to November 8, 2018 on the "Russia-1" national TV channel. The second season premiered from March 25 to March 29, 2019.

The series tells the story of historical events covering the years 1580 to 1613, from the late reign of Ivan the Terrible (1530-1584), the first Tsar of all Rus', until the ascension to the Russian throne of Mikhail I Romanov (1598-1645). It centers upon the fate of the Godunov family: Tsar Boris Godunov (1551-1605), his wife Maria Skuratova-Belskaya, his sister Irina Godunova, his son Fyodor II of Russia and his daughter Tsarevna Xenia Borisovna.

The creators based themselves upon the novel-chronicle "Shipwreck near the Island of Hope" (1978, not translated) by historical novelist Konstantin Badygin. The novel tells the story of Boris Godunov's rise to power and the struggle of the powerful Stroganov family with the background of English merchants trying to establish privileged trade relations. The authors slightly changed the storylines, simplifying them and replacing some of the characters. Nonetheless, most of the characters are strictly historical. The score was written and orchestrated by renowned Kazakh composer Artem Vasilyev

The series is currently available on Region 1 DVD (in Russian with English subtitles) and on Amazon's Prime Video. Its IMDb ID is 9401912